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'Chase and run' cell movement mechanism explains metastasis

17 June 2013

A mechanism that cells use to group together and move around the body
– called 'chase and run' - has been described for the first time by
scientists at UCL.

Published in Nature Cell Biology, the new study focuses on
the process that occurs when cancer cells interact with healthy cells in
order to migrate around the body during metastasis. Scientists know
that cancer cells recruit healthy cells and use them to travel long
distances, but how this process takes place and how it could be
controlled to design new therapies against cancer remains unknown.

Now, using embryonic cells called 'neural crest cells' (which are
similar to cancer cells in term of their invasive behaviour) and placode
cells which are the precursors for cranial nerves (the equivalent to
healthy cells) researchers at UCL have started to unravel this process.

They have found that when neural crest cells are put next to placode
cells they undergo a dramatic transformation and start 'chasing' the
placode cells. At the same time placode cells exhibit 'escape'
behaviour when contacted by neural crest cells. The chasing behaviour
depends on the production of small chemical molecules by the placode
cells that attracts neural crest cells toward them.

The authors of the study are confident that the process whereby
cancer cells attached to healthy cells in order to migrate around the
body is comparable. Healthy cells of the body try to escape from tumour
cells, but are followed by malignant cells because the healthy cells
produce an attractant for the cancer cells.

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Dr Roberto Mayor, UCL Department of Cell and Developmental Biology
and lead author of the research, said: "We use the analogy of the donkey
and the carrot to explain this behaviour: the donkey follows the
carrot, but the carrot moves away when approached by the donkey.
Similarly the neural crest cells follow the placode cells, but placode
cells move away when touched by neural crest cells."

"The findings suggest an alternative way in which cancer treatments
might work in the future if therapies can be targeted at the process of
interaction between malignant and healthy cells to stop cancer cells
from spreading and causing secondary tumours."

He added: "Most cancer deaths are not due to the formation of the primary
tumour, instead people die from secondary tumours originating from the
first malignant cells, which are able to travel and colonise vital
organs of the body such as the lungs or the brain."

The work was funded by the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust.